A warning to all 5th wheel owners - don't just look at the latch bar pin, really see it

[MSCH]

My brother has extensive, like a million miles in the last 25 years hauling his own livestock. He isn't commercial, because he isn't for hire, but he is fair game for the DOT. His friend is a DOT compliance officer and has probably pulled him over 10 times in the last 20 years, just to say hi and check for safety issues and dip the fuel. The DOT is equal opportunity.

commercial vehicle enforcement applies to private agricultural vehicles. as soon as they get outside a certain radius radius from farm base.. in a nutshell the exemptions from the commercial rules for agricultural vehicles ( aka a livestock trailer) go away as the distance from the farm increases.. I think rule is 150 miles, but might be 100.. .. so you can be a private horse type person, who goes to shows hundreds of miles away or be delivering a prize bull hundreds of miles away in your dually pulling a large horse trailer, and fall under CDOT rules.. whereas the Julio's driving Class 7 air brake equipped flatbed trucks who work for the local large scale Tomato Farms in my locale can drive those Class 7 trucks and not fall under all the commercial vehicle rules.


Worth pointing out nobody understands all of these rules and exceptions either.
I don't like to make blanket statements on this stuff, because there are exceptions...

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[GON]

commercial vehicle enforcement applies to private agricultural vehicles. as soon as they get outside a certain radius radius from farm base.. in a nutshell the exemptions from the commercial rules for agricultural vehicles ( aka a livestock trailer) go away as the distance from the farm increases.. I think rule is 150 miles, but might be 100.. .. so you can be a private horse type person, who goes to shows hundreds of miles away or be delivering a prize bull hundreds of miles away in your dually pulling a large horse trailer, and fall under CDOT rules.. whereas the Julio's driving Class 7 air brake equipped flatbed trucks who work for the local large scale Tomato Farms in my locale can drive those Class 7 trucks and not fall under all the commercial vehicle rules.


Worth pointing out nobody understands all of these rules and exceptions either.
I don't like to make blanket statements on this stuff, because there are exceptions...

.

One thing I noticed driving the interstates west if the Mississippi River, observations suggested truckers hauling livestock did not have to obey the Interstate speed limits. I often thought why, and two things came to mind, first is that every minute the livestock is in a trailer more risk is added to the injury and/ or death of the cattle, chickens, etc. The second reason I assumed is that there may be a unwritten rule that state troopers leave the local livestock transporters alone.... I suspect Wayne may provide more insight.....

 

[Wayne]

commercial vehicle enforcement applies to private agricultural vehicles. as soon as they get outside a certain radius radius from farm base.. in a nutshell the exemptions from the commercial rules for agricultural vehicles ( aka a livestock trailer) go away as the distance from the farm increases.. I think rule is 150 miles

Yep, in Iowa I believe the radius is 150 miles. When I got my driver's license at 16, I was hauling grain with the semi on public roads, but I don't think I ever went more than 30 miles from home. It was completely legal, because the semi was farm plated. Unplated farm machinery has zero requirements for licensure. I started driving farm machinery on the road at about 12 if I remember correctly and pulling two large gravity boxes behind a large four wheel drive tractor at 14. That rig scaled at 140k pounds. That's a lot of weight to manage. Now a 30k camping rig doesn't seem like much.

 

[Wayne]

I often thought why, and two things came to mind, first is that every minute the livestock is in a trailer more risk is added to the injury and/ or death of the cattle, chickens, etc. The second reason I assumed is that there may be a unwritten rule that state troopers leave the local livestock transporters alone.... I suspect Wayne may provide more insight.....

Iowa has no special rule for livestock haulers, but I suspect you are correct that there is a professional courtesy up to a limit. It's your guess what the limit is that day for that trooper.

 

[MSCH]

cops probably leave them livestock trucks alone because of the smell.